EASTHAMPTON -- A proposed zoning ordinance which would cap most development at 50,000 square feet was the subject of debate and discussion Wednesday night, with proponents saying it would benefit small business by banning big-box retail, and opponents countering it would quash the city's tax base while failing to accomplish anything of value.

No formal action was taken at the Feb. 18 joint public hearing of the Planning Board and Ordinance Committee, although a half-dozen people stepped to the podium and expressed their views. The hearing remains open, meaning residents are still free to submit input on the measure, which will eventually be debated by the full City Council.

Speaking in favor of the ordinance were Daniel Hagan, Jr. and David Gardner, the duo who crafted the measure's language. Gardner said the size cap would be in keeping with the spirit and intent of the city's comprehensive plan, which was adopted in 2008.

"Many small developments are better for the town than a large big box store," said Gardner. He added that a big box such as Walmart could sink small, local businesses on Union and Cottage streets.

Hagan said a size cap would promote sustainability because very large buildings are harder to repurpose than smaller ones, should the original tenant up and leave.

The largest building in the city is Valley Medical on Northampton Street at 31,000 feet, stated Hagan, saying "it's not a substantial limitation here. Nothing else in the city even comes close." He said the 50,000 number was chosen because it was just over the size of a permitted but stalled Stop & Shop plan on Rt. 10 which would otherwise become non-conforming.

Opposed were several landowners along Northampton Street (Rt. 10), the city's main commercial corridor, including David Boyle of Autumn Properties, lawyer Tom Vincent on behalf of developer Bernard Gawle, and John Courtney, whose family owns the land permitted for the stalled Stop & Shop plaza.

"It limits flexibility and creativity," said Boyle, noting that as written, the measure would let him subdivide his 6.3 acre parcel at 221 Northampton St. and build two 50,000-foot buildings, but not let him place a single 60,000-square-foot medical building upon the same large lot.

Walmart builds so-called "neighborhood markets" in the 30,000 square-foot range, said Boyle, which the proposed cap would not prevent. Globalization and online shopping are a bigger threat to small business in Easthampton than any big box, opined Boyle.

"It's the cloud, not big buildings, impacting local jobs," he said.

Boyle, a member of the city's Economic Development and Industrial Commission, has filed a disclosure form with the mayor's office making clear his status as a potentially affected property owner, he said. The EDIC, an advisory body that was until recently dormant, could possibly issue a recommendation on the ordinance March 10th if a quorum of its members show up.

Courtney said 33 acres off Northampton Street has been in his family since 1898. "We have the right to develop our property," he said. "It's not right, and it's not fair."

Mayor Karen Cadieux chimed in, saying she's wary of any measure that would limit business development, and therefore property taxes, during a time when margins are slim.

"We're heading into a very difficult budget period," said Cadieux. "We haven't seen an increase in local aid since 2008."

Cadieux was one of several who said an arbitrary building cap could push development over the borders into Northampton and Southampton, leaving Easthampton with all of the traffic and none of the tax revenue.

Another issue raised by many was the fact that the zoning measure would cap not just the size of a single building, but the aggregate square footage of all structures within a planned unit or planned business development.

As written, the size cap would apply to any development in any zone, except for for industrial uses in the industrial zone. It was introduced by City Council President Joseph McCoy in October at the request of Gardner and Hagan. Gardner and Hagan said Wednesday their proposed legislation also contains an affordable housing exemption.

City Planner Jessica Allan has reviewed the measure and recommended a set of changes, including upping the cap to 80,000 feet for planned developments, exempting mill building renovation projects, and limiting the cap to retail uses only.

Allan also wrote that developing design standards for the city's highway business zone could be as fruitful in guiding development as imposing a simple size cap upon buildings.

Hagan and Gardner said Allan's recommendations made sense to them, and that they were "willing to compromise."

Patrick Brough, former president of the Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce, said the best result would come if people dropped the idea of being "opponents and proponents" and started working together productively.

The Chamber has given the measure its stamp of approval provided Allan's recommendations are incorporated, said executive director Maureen Belliveau earlier this week.

The Planning Board and Ordinance Committee will discuss the matter separately and issue their recommendations to the City Council, which has the final say over whether the zoning measure is adopted.